Significant advances have been achieved in microprocessor technology. Such advances have been driven by a consistently increasing demand for processing power and speed in communications networks, computer devices, handheld devices, and other electronic devices. The achieved advances have resulted in substantial increase in processing speed, or power, and on-chip memory capacity of processor devices existing in the market. Other results of the achieved advances include reduction in the size and power consumption of microprocessor chips.
Increase in processing power has been achieved by increasing the number of transistors in a microprocessor chip, adopting multi-core structure, as well as other improvements in processor architecture. The increase in processing power has been an important factor contributing to improved performance of communication networks, as well as to the huge burst in smart handheld devices and related applications.